Counter culture
It’s 10 a.m. on Thursday, and just about every seat is full at the General Mercantile’s counter bar.
This is the second wave of regular customers at this unusual business on Last Chance Gulch — it’s part coffee house, part gift shop, part meeting place and completely unique.
Everyone seems to know everyone else’s name, and no one is in much of a hurry to move on. On any given day you can find downtown merchants, legislators, retirees and mothers with kids in tow.
The “counter culture” — as some of the regular customers refer to themselves — browse the papers and easily chat, chuckle and gripe about the news of the day or whatever else is on their minds. Among the topics today is the logic — or perhaps lack thereof — of some of the bills circulating through the current session of the Montana Legislature.
Walking into The Merc, as it is commonly known, is like stepping into a bygone era — until you notice that some of the folks at the bar or in the booths in the back are typing away on their laptop computers and taking advantage of the Wi-Fi Internet connection. The decor has a distinctly vintage feel for a reason — it’s mostly all vintage, reclaimed pieces.
Owner Ray Domer bought the empty space for a bargain in 1971 and slowly began building it into what it is today — starting with paneling the walls with old, crooked two-by-fours that came from the family ranch near Mount Baldy in the Townsend area.
The bar stools at the counter came from the old highway cafe in St. Regis. The wood columns came from Helena’s old Broadwater Hotel. The cooler that holds chocolates and cold drinks is originally from the old Safeway store in downtown Helena.
